City hires private 3rd party firm to collect occupancy tazes from properties listed as AirBnB rentails
Article by Michael Robinson; Council Picture by Robinson
City Council approved hiring a 3rd party firm, Avenue Insights and Analytics to collect local occupancy tax monies due from AirBnB’s to the City falling under the Hotel Occupancy Tax also referred to as HOT Tax.
According to city officials the AirBnB service collects State taxes owed by property owners as a part of its service but local HOT taxes incurred are not collected.
According to city officials. AirBnB’s are categorized as STR’s or Short Term Rentals and are taxable by both State and Local Officials.
According to City of Uvalde Director of Planning and Development Susan Anderson, owners of private residences cannot list homes as Air-BnB rentals without going to the Uvalde City Planning and Zoning Committee for approval .In a followup statement online by Councilman Chip King he stated it depends on the existing zoning of the property whether or not the property owner must get the listing approved by the City.
It was stated at the meeting, home owners in Uvalde are listing homes as AirBnb rentals and have not gotten approval from the city or paying local taxes.
Avenue Insights and Analytics was approved as a 3rd party entity to identify and collect local HOT Taxes due to the City’s coffers . It is likely the aforementioned firm will search AirBnB listings for qualifying short term rentals located in the City which would be obligated to pay the local HOT Tax.
As part of the arrangement, the City is projected to receive $34K revenue while paying Avenue Insights and Analytics $15k
PDFs have several pages: Use controls at the botton of each pdf to see additional pages
Occupancy tax collection a STR documents
